28 Days Practice in Presence

"Practice in Presence is yielding strength to our intentions through endless reiteration, unshakable faith, and a resolve to surrender." During the month of February, our Maya community will focus on keeping our intentions alive and in focus in various forms every day through our 28 Days Practice in Presence. It’s one thing to set an intention, and something more to mindfully practice toward that intention – to weave it through your thoughts and actions with unwavering faithfulness. We will start 28 Days Practice in Presence with a free workshop to help you discover and set your intentions and determine what daily and weekly goals will structure that practice. We will be providing Intention Cards in the studio that you can fill out and stamp for each day you practice towards your intention, as a visual reminder of gratitude to yourself. Subscribe to this 28 Days Practice in Presence at bottom righthand of this page to receive daily e-mails on inspiration and guidance in your practice. Visit the blog throughout the month for stories and ideas from Maya community about their experience. And in the spirit of community, please share your own stories to inspire others! Join us for the free closing workshop on Saturday, March 1st @ 5:00 PM

by Phillip MoffittGoal making is a valuable skill; it involves envisioning a future outcome in the world or in your behavior, then planning, applying discipline, and working hard to achieve it. You organize your time and energy based on your goals; they help provide direction for your life. Committing to and visualizing those goals may assist you in your efforts, but neither of these activities is what I call setting intention. They both involve living in an imagined future and are not concerned with what is happening to you in the present moment. With goals, the future is always the focus: Are you going to reach the goal? Will you be happy when you do? What's next?Setting intention, at least according to Buddhist teachings, is quite different than goal making. It is not oriented toward a future outcome. Instead, it is a path or practice that is focused on how you are "being" in the present moment. Your attention is on the ever-present "now" in the constantly changing flow of life. You set your intentions based on understanding what matters most to you and make a commitment to align your worldly actions with your inner values.As you gain insight through meditation, wise reflection, and moral living, your ability to act from your intentions blossoms. It is called a practice because it is an ever-renewing process. You don't just set your intentions and then forget about them; you live them every day.Although the student thought she was focusing on her inner experience of the present moment, she was actually focusing on a future outcome; even though she had healthy goals that pointed in a wholesome direction, she was not being her values. Thus, when her efforts did not go well, she got lost in disappointment and confusion. When this happened, she had no "ground of intention" to help her regain her mental footing—no way to establish herself in a context that was larger and more meaningful than her goal-oriented activity.Goals help you make your place in the world and be an effective person. But being grounded in intention is what provides integrity and unity in your life. Through the skillful cultivation of intention, you learn to make wise goals and then to work hard toward achieving them without getting caught in attachment to outcome. As I suggested to the yogi, only by remembering your intentions can you reconnect with yourself during those emotional storms that cause you to lose touch with yourself. This remembering is a blessing, because it provides a sense of meaning in your life that is independent of whether you achieve certain goals or not.Ironically, by being in touch with and acting from your true intentions, you become more effective in reaching your goals than when you act from wants and insecurities. Once the yogi understood this, she started to work with goals and intentions as separate functions. She later reported that continually coming back to her intentions in the course of her day was actually helping her with her goals. Excerpt taken from "The Heart's Intentions: Setting objectives is not the same as making goals. Confusing the two can lead to unnecessary suffering, Yoga Journal

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28 Days Practice in Presence to ignite and inspire mindful attention to intention. Our community unites to offer up our experiences to provide guidance in the practice of being good at life.